was a World War II-era combined shrapnel and incendiary anti-aircraft round used by the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were generically referred to as Beehive rounds. The shells were intended to create a large volume of flame which attacking aircraft would have to fly through. However, U.S. pilots considered these shells to be more of a pyrotechnics display than an effective anti-aircraft weapon.[1]
The Sanshiki anti-aircraft shell was designed for several gun calibers, from the 12.7cm (05inches) up to the 46cm (18inches) guns of the Yamato-class battleships.
These shells were composed of:
Depending on the caliber, the composition of the shells could vary:[2]
| Gun | Mass &<br>Length | Composition | Performances (dispersion) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46cm (18inches)/45 | 1360kg (3,000lb) 1600mm | 996 tubes 1500 stays 1500 fragments ? explosive charge | 15° of dispersion 242m (794feet) diameter | Designation: Type 3 Shell Model 13 | |
| 41cm (16inches)/45 | 940kg (2,070lb) 1400mm | 940 tubes 375 stays 1110 fragments ? explosive charge | 15° of dispersion 213m (699feet) diameter | ||
| 35.6cm (14inches)/45 | 622kg (1,371lb) 1200mm | 480 tubes 199 stays 679 fragments ? explosive charge | 15° of dispersion 152m (499feet) diameter | ||
| 20.3cm (08inches)/50 | 126kg (278lb) 860mm | 198 tubes 57 stays 255 fragments 2kg (04lb) explosive charge | 13° of dispersion 100m (300feet) diameter | The maximum effective range was only 1000m (3,000feet), with a maximum possible altitude of 10000m (30,000feet) | |
| 12.7cm (05inches)/40 Type 89 12.7cm (05inches)/50 Type 3 | 23kg (51lb) 437mm | 43 tubes 23 stays 66 fragments ? explosive charge | 10° of dispersion 54m (177feet) diameter |
During repairs after Operation Tungsten, the German battleship Tirpitz also used a specially-fuzed variation of this shell for its 38cm (15inches) guns, for antiaircraft barrage fire.[3]
The Sanshiki anti-aircraft shells were used for shore bombardment during the Battle for Henderson Field. On 13 October 1942, in order to help protect the transit of an important supply convoy to Guadalcanal that consisted of six slower cargo ships, the Japanese Combined Fleet commander Isoroku Yamamoto sent a naval force from Truk—commanded by Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita—to bombard Henderson Field. Kurita's force—consisting of the battleships and, escorted by one light cruiser and nine destroyers—approached Guadalcanal unopposed and opened fire on Henderson Field at 01:33 on 14 October. Over the next 83 minutes, they fired 973 of the main gun 35.6abbr=onNaNabbr=on shells, of which 104 were Type 3s fired by Kongō.[4] The rest of the shells were 189 Type 0 "HE" shells and 625 Type 1 "AP" shells which fell into the Lunga perimeter, most of them falling in and around the 2200m2 area of the airfield. The bombardment heavily damaged the airfield's two runways, burned almost all of the available aviation fuel, destroyed 48 of the CAF's ("Cactus Air Force") 90 aircraft, and killed 41 men, including six CAF aircrew.[5] [6]
During the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942, another Japanese naval force attempted to bombard Henderson Field but before they could reach their target they were intercepted by American cruisers and destroyers. The first few salvos from the battleships and consisted of the Sanshiki anti-aircraft shells, as their crews were not expecting a ship-to-ship confrontation and took several minutes to switch to armor-piercing ammunition, with several Sanshiki shells hitting the cruiser, causing less serious damage than that which would have been inflicted by armor-piercing shells.
Even though the 3 Shiki tsûjôdan shells comprised 40% of the total main ammunition load of the Yamato-class battleships by 1944, they were rarely used in combat against enemy aircraft.[7] The blast of the main guns turned out to disrupt the fire of the smaller antiaircraft guns. In addition the copper driving bands of the rounds were poorly machined and constant firing was damaging to the gun rifling;[8] [9] indeed, one of the shells may have exploded early and disabled one of s guns during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea.[7] fired these shells in two separate instances during Operation Ten-Go, first against PBM Mariner flying boats shadowing her, and later against the attacking aircraft of Task Force 58.